Folklore education need to be given importance: US expert

Observing that inclusion of folklore in school curriculum would give a new dimension in grasping the roots of tradition, culture and heritage, a US folk arts expert has said that effective safeguarding steps must start from educational institutions.
Folklore educations need to be given equal importance as other academic subjects, Robert Baron, director, Folk Arts Programme, New York State Council on the Arts, said, adding, the existence of folklores was not only confined in preserving it.
Folklore was emergent. It changed each time it was performed, varying in form and context, with innovation by individuals within the convention of the community, he said delivering a lecture at a programme titled 'Abhimukham,' organised by Sahapedia, an open online resource on the arts, cultures and heritage of India, at the Kerala Chamber of Commerce here yesterday.

Baron spoke about the importance and power of traditional cultures, skills and art forms in a society, and how these could be not only promoted to protect skills of artisans and artists, but also to create new industries of economic gain.
He said that public, apart from curators and museum directors, could also become channels to protect and promote culture.
He also spoke about cultural broking being a transaction between societies and the skilled, the knowledge of new skills and art forms expended to society in return for support to these skilled artists to preserve and practice their skills.

"India has got a very rich cultural and traditional heritage but the shields protecting them are frangible," he observed.

Baron said, Kerala was a role model when it comes to a sustainable way of cultural tourism.
Tourism leads to employment generation and economic growth but the commercialisation of art leads to distortion of its ethnic intrinsic values, he said.